Believe it or not, one of these is the “chopping off” of the NW corner of the building, as during enabling works, a UK Power Networks tunnel was “discovered”! (Underneath Leicester Square is a primary substation.)

Floor level numbers have been altered, and the cinema is now primarily on Levels B3 and B4, with the alterations outlined with cross-section plans and 3D visualisations in the Design & Access Statement Part 1.

The cinema aspect of the scheme has been changed, with the gross area reduced by over 2,000sq.ft., now being approx. 20,700sq.ft.

Screen 2 is rotated by 90 deg anti-clockwise. I’m not clear from the cross-sections on whether this involves a reduction in the auditorium’s height, but the basement foyer area is now under Screen 2, instead of being underneath the stepped seating structures of both Screens 1 and 2.

Screen 1 is in about the same location but its layout seems to have been slightly improved; however, being in the NW corner of the building, the auditorium is also slightly sliced off to the right of the screen (which is positioned on the West side of the building, facing East.)

Measuring the screen width on the drawing (fortunately a scale is included), it is about 50ft. wide, with the distance to the last row being about 70ft. or so, i.e. 1.4 screen widths away, which matches another Odeon iSense auditorium.

Permission for the above application has been granted, and I notice that the planning condition (number 6) to have the cinema ready and handed over for fit-out before the hotel opens is still there.

There is another application providing details of public art proposals in relation to a condition of planning permission.

The proposals, which have been approved by Westminster Council, are not for anything that one might reasonably have expected as “public art,” but rather cover proposed facade details and finishes, with lots of drawings, renderings and photos in the document titled “PUBLICARTSCHEME_PART1_LOWRES.”

Bureaucracy aside, I don’t object to the idea of the facade being informed by a schooled artist as having value, and this makes the application of far more relevance here; I see the proposals include faience tiles.

Hi All, I worked here between 2005 and 2009 as the senior projectionist with Steve Larcombe. I had some of the messiest, craziest, happiest and saddest memories of my professional career at this cinema. I now live in Perth, Australia but returned back in November 2015 to OWE to see the remains being pulled down. It was truly saddening what has happened.
In 2006 we were given plans by the council for their vision of what the new Odeon basement would look like and we laughed at them.
I still have my master key set though for the entire building! I’ll always have that and the 4000 pictures I took of the building when I was there.

December 2015 newsletter posted on the hoarding says that the entire site has now been cleared and pre-piling works are complete.

Basement cinemas or not, the sooner this gaping hole in Leicester Square is plugged the better! With the adjacent 48 Leicester Square rebuild (facade retained) well progressed, the South West corner of the square is presently one big building site.

The 400 seater at least has the potential to be a decent “large format”-style screen and (presumably?) is needed for moveovers from the OLS. The cinemas (once opened) could be repurposed as conference spaces, but then again, they can always be hired out as such anyway…

Call me an old cynic, but I too would be amazed if the cinemas ever open. Within the next couple of years the developer will give Odeon a large (secret) backhander to pull out. Odeon will say that they have decided that the cinemas would be uneconomic and the developers will then claim that no other operator is interested and use the space for something else. I will be delighted to be proved wrong, but as the cinemas are only going to be a couple of poky basement spaces, no doubt outfitted in today’s basic format with a bare unmasked screen on one wall, I don’t think we will be missing much.

Looking through the “Decision Notice” in the previously linked planning documents, Condition 6 of the Planning Permission states that “the hotel use… must not begin until the cinema has been provided with services and made ready for fit out by the relevant tenant and evidence has been submitted to and approved by the Council…”

I have fond memories of seeing movies in Screen 2. But let’s be fair, the cinema—with its asbestos and crumbling-ceiling laden void areas—not to mention the rest of the block—is long overdue for an overhaul.

In my view, however, this scheme is a missed opportunity, as the two screens are almost the minimum option, being tucked away in less than one half of Basement Level 2. If only slightly more space had been allocated! Granted, services and structural considerations may render that impossible.

One might anticipate that Odeon will install a 50ft. wide screen in the larger auditorium and brand it an “iSense” screen…

Details of the planning permission are up on Westminster Council’s site via the above linked page. More than £5m of contributions, for Crossrail, “public realm,” affordable housing, etc. are required per the S106 agreement!

The 1968 modernisation did not actually remove the French Renaissance style decor but “inserted” a modern auditorium into the original shell. The balcony was indeed removed and the new proscenium was situated on the old stage. This situation remains with the “new” cinema simply twinned. Much original decor can still be seen in “mirth and mayhem’s” photostream on Flickr.

70mm returns to the Odeon West End on Friday, as Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master plays exclusively between 2nd November and 15th November 2012. It opens in the 814 seat screen 2 – the former stalls. According to the Odeon web site it is the only cinema in the UK to be screening it in 70mm.